Software projects that are part of a larger program but have use by themselves.

Software projects that can be fully completed during the grant period.

Temporary working space.

Training programs with a local tech meetup.

Translation work.

Examples of ideas unlikely to be accepted

Academic scholarships.

Merchandise giveaways for all participants in an event or for general outreach, including t-shirts.

Prizes for mapping.

Recurring hosting, rent and other costs.

Server hardware.

Traditional paid mapping.

Any purchase or activity that would be budgeted by the OSMF in the normal course of business, such as improvements to general OSMF infrastructure and support for Working Groups

In light of the ongoing health crisis regarding COVID19, we will not be awarding microgrants for projects which require offline group gatherings and in-person meetings, although these ideas are certainly valuable for future rounds.

Recurrent hosting and buying server hardware could become acceptable in a further iteration of the project.

Eligibility Criteria

Applicants must be OSMF member (but can apply for membership at the same time as the grant application).

Applicants and beneficiaries must have a history of volunteer OSM activity (at least comparable in scope to the grant project).

Max 5000 EUR.

Project length max 12 months.

Any individual, group, or organisation is allowed a maximum of three open grants at any one time.

Funds for offline activities are typically for direct expenses and not used to pay for people’s time. We strongly prefer enabling volunteers over paying for work. However paid work is not excluded as such, and can be acceptable if the impact is big enough. Funds can be used to pay for people’s time in certain cases, for example on software projects and tools development.

You must agree to the reporting requirements, be willing to sign a grant agreement, and provide the OpenStreetMap Foundation with information needed to process your funding.

You must consult with your Local Chapter if applicable.

Projects that have a local impact, should discuss with the relevant local communities

Personal benefit should be small compared to benefit of outcome. The application should describe potential personal benefit.

The initiative you plan to do should be open to a general audience by all means. That is, an event attendance should be free of charge, software must be open-sourced, media must be freely downloadable and published under open licences (see the definition at https://opensource.org/osd).

The project or the initiative should be directly related to OpenStreetMap, which should be justifiably stated in its goals.

Number of people involved in the project or the initiative is not limited (but it would not affect the grant size).

Project must be shared and discussed widely during the application process, at least on OSMF-talk and with the wider OSM community.

The project isn’t paying someone to do something that could have easily been done by a volunteer.

Project participants must adhere to Community guidelines and should be in good community standing.

Projects can be recipients of other funds of any form, but need to disclose this during the application process. Candidates should have tried to find other possible sources of funding for their project.

Deadline: May 10th, 2020

How to Apply

The Microgrant application will ask for the following: (To start your application scroll down to the Start your application section.)

About your Mapping Community

Tell us a little bit about your mapping community at the moment, some examples of details to include are below, but please provide us with any information you think is relevant.
Please write 100-200 words.

Which city and country are you based in

Which locations is your mapping focussed on

How long you and/or your organisation have been mapping

How many people are part of your mapping community

The gender balance of your mapping community

What the purpose of your mapping is (your mission)

What do you need the grant money for?

We want to understand what you plan to buy, how much you plan to buy, and why this will help you to scale your community mapping efforts. There are two tables for you to fill in your response, and you may add more rows as needed. Some examples are in the table for your reference. You are welcome to use a different format in your response, but please make sure to include these details.

Budget Breakdown

Item

What do you plan to spend the money on?

Expected cost per unit (in Euros)

Quantity you plan to buy / subscription length

Expected total cost (in Euros)

Why is it needed? (Please give as much detail as possible.)

Example

Wifi internet access

€50 per month

12 months

€600

This will allow us to run mapathons with up to 40 people at one time. At the moment we do not have internet access so cannot run mapathons with large groups. Having wifi will enable us to grow our community and achieve our goals.

Example

Drone with camera

€500 per drone+camera

2 units

€1,000

This will allow us to capture drone imagery to aid us in detailed mapping of our city, because the available satellite imagery is poor quality currently and not useful for mapping roads, sidewalks, and houses in detail.

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If you receive a grant, what do you aim to achieve?

It is recommended that this supports the mission of the OSM Foundation and your local community. Please provide us with any information you think is relevant including the metrics you expect to achieve. Please write 100-200 words.

Some examples of details could be any of the following, or others you decide upon:

How will the project help the community

The area you plan to map

What volume of mapping you plan to complete (e.g. expected number of people, number of square kilometres)

How many members of your existing community you plan to train

How many new members you hope to join your community

Do you receive funding from any other sources at the moment?

If you receive funding from other organisations currently, please state how much this is, whether the donations are regular or one-off, and how these funds have been raised. Please write no more than 300 words.If you have any sources of co-funding for this grant application, please provide details. Examples of this might be if you have any partners who would be willing to match grant funding if you receive it, or if your project has existing funding. Please provide as much detail as possible.

Is there anything you would like OSMF to support you with?

If there is anything which you would like OSMF to support you with in order to strengthen your project, please let us know. For example, this could include building relationships with OSM communities, sourcing updated imagery for mapping projects, or guidance on how to use some of the tools we have created. We want to do our best to support OSM communities, so please let us know what you need. Please write no more than 150 words.

Declaration

By submitting this form to the OpenStreetMap Foundation, you certify the information contained in this application is correct, and that if you are awarded a grant, you will use it only for the purposes described above. You will provide written documentation and receipts for all of your expenses to the OSM Foundation to demonstrate this. You understand that the decisions made by the OSM Foundation Microgrants Committee are final.